


Before You Go

by beaniesandcrowns



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Get your tissues, Sad Ending, Suicide, Tissue Warning, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:28:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22560241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beaniesandcrowns/pseuds/beaniesandcrowns
Summary: Betty is gone.Jughead is in a church stood in front of her friends and family.The memories keep coming.
Relationships: Betty Cooper & Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 12
Kudos: 39
Collections: 7th Bughead Fanfiction Awards - Nominees





	Before You Go

**Author's Note:**

> This work is inspired by Lewis Capaldi’s song Before You Go. It’s my absolute favourite song but it’s also fucking SAD so I decided to write a SAD fic to match! I cried while writing the ending to this, enjoy!  
> Emily x

_ So, before you go, was there something I could have said to make your heart beat better, if only I’d have known you had a storm to weather. _

Jughead stood at the podium and looked out over the sea of black in the church. Lots of familiar faces that he’s used to seeing with joy or laughter but today, there’s only sorrow. In the front row sits Alice and Polly, both holding hands with swollen red eyes from crying, fresh tears already collecting in their eyes. Next to them also sit Archie and Veronica. The latter who hasn’t stopped crying since Betty took her last breath. 

“Betty was my everything, her presence lit up a room and everyone around her. Looking back I should have seen that all that light she poured into those around her, dimmed the light inside her.”

He glanced to the side where her picture stood in a dark wooden frame next to her coffin which was indistinguishable due to the amount of flowers that lay on top.

He had taken that photo, they were in Pop’s during the early days of their relationship. He had just got into photography and had decided that Betty was to be his new muse.

———

_ “Juggie stop!”, her tinkling laughter ran out through the diner as they sat in a booth together during one of their Friday evening dates. _

_ Jughead pokes his eye above the camera and stared at her pointedly, “Betty, you are literally the most beautiful thing in my life, I need to memorise every detail so that when you leave me for someone your mother approves of so I can gaze at these longingly and tell everyone in my nursing home that you were the love of my life.” _

_ She smiled, “You’re wrong, I would never leave you for someone else Juggie. We are going to be in that nursing home side by side.” _

_ He raised the camera back up to his eye and snapped a photo, grinning at the love in her eyes as he showed it to her, “Ok I like that one, you can keep that one.”  _

_ “I’m keeping them all Betts, you’re beautiful.” _

_ She looked at him with her eyes welling with tears. “I love you so much Juggie.” _

_ “I love you too Betty.” _

———

Glancing back down at the speech he had written through his tears the night before, he shook his head as the first tears started to fall. This wasn’t something she would have wanted or deserved. This speech he had written was too  forced , she would want something spontaneous, from deep inside his heart,

“Fuck it”

He screwed up the page that he had spent hours typing out on the typewriter she had bought him for their first Christmas as a couple and dropped it onto the floor. 

“I met Betty when we were 6 years old. Some kids were picking on me for my beanie and she stood up for me. She was the first person to ever stand up for me to anyone and from that moment I was in love with her.”

———

_ Jughead was sitting in the corner of the playground rubbing his hands together, trying to get some warmth into them through the gloves he had cut the ends off when his fingers had grown too long. There was no way his family could afford to get him new gloves, just last night his mother had enough of his father’s drinking and had taken off with baby Jellybean.  _

_ She hadn’t come home yet but he still held hope that she would come back for him. She always came back, it would be 48 hours at the most but then she’ll come back smiling as if nothing had happened. She wouldn’t leave him alone with his drunk of a father, right? _

_ Reggie and his friends walked over smirking at him, “Ew look it’s Jughead the weirdo. What’s that thing on your head? Is it supposed to be a hat?” _

_ He pulled the hat off Jughead’s head and started jumping on it. His friends joined in and Jughead winced at the mud that was being trodden into the wool. There was no way he was going to be able to get it out and then the rich kids would have another reason to make fun of the weird kid from the Southside with a muddy hat. _

_ Suddenly a voice speaks out from behind them, “Leave him alone jerks!” _

_ All of them stopped stamping on Jughead’s hat and span around to see a small girl with her blonde hair pulled back into a neat ponytail and pristine pastel clothes on.  _

_ “And why should we do that, he’s a weirdo.” _

_ “Because my mother goes to the same gym as your father, Reggie. I don’t think he would appreciate it if he found out that his son was bullying other students.” _

_ Reggie looked terrified and quickly handed Jughead his hat back before sprinting off with his minions following after. _

_ The girl took his hat and examined the damage, “It’s not too bad, it will need to be dry cleaned since it’s wool.” _

_ “I can’t afford that, I can’t even afford new gloves.” _

_ She looked at him and held out her hand to pull him up from the ground. Once he was stood up, she held out her hand for him to shake which he took cautiously. _

_ “I’m Betty Cooper and I am going to be your new best friend. Can I take your hat home with me? I can get my mother to take it to the dry cleaners tomorrow morning and you can have it back good as new by Wednesday.” _

_ He agreed and on Wednesday she handed him a package that contained his hat with two new pins and a pair of gloves. _

———

“She gave me new gloves even though all I really needed was a clean hat. She looked out for me every single day, she chased the bullies away and gave me a new best friend in the form of Archie.”

He smiled at Archie who was sat in the front row comforting Veronica whilst trying not to cry himself, a battle he was slowly loosing. 

“The highlight of my time with Betty however, is the day I climbed the ladder into her bedroom and finally gained the courage to show her how I felt. We shared many kisses over our time together, but that one will always hold a special place in my heart.”

He paused for a moment, letting himself get lost in the memories of that day and smiled briefly.

———

_ He could hear the condescending yell of Alice Cooper from the street below Betty’s window. He climbed the ladder that he had leaned against the side of the house. _

_ He peered through her window to see Betty sat on her bed as Alice paced I front of her yelling. _

_ “A B is not good enough Elizabeth! This is going to go on your permanent record and you will never get into a good college. Look at Polly, she never got lower than an A and she’s now at the top of her class at Harvard. What did I do to raise a failure! I expected better of you Elizabeth, you’re grounded until I can see some improvement.” _

_ Jughead ducked down until he heard the sound of Betty’s door closing meaning that Alice had left. He peered back through the window and his heart broke as he saw Betty sat on her bed with mascara stains down her cheeks and a fresh set of red crescents across her palms. _

_ After a moment of hesitation, he raised his hand and tapped on her window, not wanting to be too loud and cause Alice to come back for round two. _

_ Betty’s head shot up and a confused smile crossed her face as she crossed the room and opened the window to let him in. “Jug what are you doing here? If mom was still in here she would have pushed you off that ladder.” _

_ “I waited until she left, I heard everything Betty she has no right to say those things to you, a B isn’t bad at all!” She shrugged dismissively and turned away from him only to be pulled back by his hands on her shoulders. _

_ “You are incredible Betty, never let anyone tell you otherwise. You’re smart, beautiful and the best cook I have ever known; which is why I need to do this.” _

_ Before he could talk himself out of it, Jughead pressed his lips to Betty’s. He half expected her to push him away and slap some sense into him but instead she kissed him back.  _

_ He tried to pull away but she quickly pulled him back to her as she laced her arms around his neck, pulling herself flush against his body, as if she was trying to melt into him.  _

_ When they finally pulled apart, she grinned and pressed her forehead to his, “you have no idea how long I was waiting for you to do that” _

_ He smirked, “Why didn’t you do it yourself? You’re always talking about how women need to start taking the lead in relationships more often.” _

_ She pulled away and laced their fingers together as she lead him over to her bed where they sat down next to each other and she rested her head on his shoulder. _

_ “I didn’t think you liked me back in that way” _

_ “I’ve liked you since we were kids Betty.” _

————

There wasn’t a dry eye in the church, some people here didn’t even know Betty personally. Many had heard of the things she had done for the town, others had benefited, the serpents for one.

“Betty and I had this plan, for after graduation. We both got into NYU so straight after graduation, we were going to get on my motorcycle and head to New York.” Jughead smiled to himself,

“We were going to rent a crap-box apartment close to NYU and save our money while we were at college, her doing journalism and me doing creative writing. We stopped planning after then, we were just going to see where life took us. The one thing we knew for sure, no matter what, we were never going to leave each other’s sides. We were in it for the long haul.”

———

_ Ju ghead rushed into Pop’s and scanned the diner, spotting her in the corner booth with her back to him. _

_ Jogging over to the booth and sliding in opposite her, the first thing he noticed was the mascara stains and red puffy eyes. She had been crying. _

_ “Baby what’s wrong, your text scared me.” _

_ Her face crumpled as fresh tears made their way down her face, “It’s my mom Jug, she’s telling me to break up with you. She said-“ _

_ She took a deep breath and Jughead reached across the table to wipe her tears away, “She said that you were only going to leave me and break my heart, that I should be with someone ‘who has a future with me’” _

_ Jughead’s hate for Alice doubled in that moment, she had been slandering the serpents and his family in the Register for years, and now she was trying to take away the one good thing in his life. _

_ “Don’t listen to her Betty, you are the one good thing in my life, why would I ever get rid of the one reason for me to get out of bed every day.” He reached across the table again to cup her face. _

_ “I love you Betty Cooper” She froze and stared at him in shock, _

_ “You love me?” _

_ “Without a doubt, I’ve been wanting to tell you for weeks but I’ve never had the courage.” _

_ She grinned and reached across the table hauling him into a long hard kiss, “I love you too Jughead Jones” _

_ He grinned and pulled her into another kiss, “You and I are in this for the long haul, Betty Cooper. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.” _

_ She giggled and pulled him back in. _

———

Tears were flowing down his cheeks now, he glanced back over at her photo, “I love you Betty, I will never love anyone more than I love you. I just can’t. People will tell me to move on, to find someone else to spend my life with, but I can’t. Those were our plans. We were going to get married and I would be the first to cry, we’d have two children and you would be the ultimate supermom.” 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring.

“I was going to give this to her the day I found her. It’s a promise ring, I worked my ass off at Pop’s so that I could buy it and then when I went to give it to her, she- she was gone. It’s going to stay with me forever, just like she will. In her letter she told me to move on and find someone else to love but I don’t think I can.”

Looking back over at her picture for the third time, Jughead looked right into her shining eyes, 

“I love you Betty, I’ll see you soon.”

———

_ Jughead walked into the Cooper house and jogged up the stairs to Betty’s room, not noticing the eerie silence that rang out through the house. _

_ “Betts? You here?” _

_ He stepped into her bedroom and was surprised by the emptiness of it. It was Friday evening, they always went to Pop’s on Friday evenings, there’s no way she would forget, right? _

_ It was now he noticed how unusually silent the house was. _

_ Alice was still at work, she always worked late on Fridays but there was always some kind of sound in the house as Betty was always playing music or just the general sounds that come from a living being moving around. _

_ That’s when he spotted something in her bathroom, and what he saw tore his heart in two.  _

_ Betty lying on the floor of her tiny bathroom with an empty bottle of pills next to her.  _

_ Next to her were 5 envelopes, each with a name written on them:  _

_ Mom, Polly, Arch, V and Juggie.  _

_ Jughead immediately dialled 911 who said that they would be there as soon as possible. Then he rang Alice, who picked up immediately, “Hey Jughead, is everything ok? Tell Betty I’ll be home in 10 minutes.” _

_ “Alice it’s Betty, she swallowed a whole bottle of pills, I just found her and called 911 but I think it’s too late... I think she’s gone.” _

_ The other end was silent then there was the audible sound of a phone dropping and quiet sobbing on the other end. _

_ - _

_ It wasn’t until later in the night when Jughead was able to read her letter. When the emergency services arrived it was endless questions and sympathy as her body was wheeled out of the house and into the back of a van. _

_ Now, in the dark of his bedroom in the trailer, Jughead opened his envelope: _

_ ‘Juggie,  _

_ I love you, and I’m so sorry, I know you will blame yourself for this but please don’t. This was my choice. I couldn’t take it anymore, the darkness was too much for me to handle anymore. I just want you to know that this wasn’t your fault, I love you with all of my heart and it breaks my heart that I’m leaving you but I have to, everyone will be better off without me in their way. I don’t want you to get hung up on me Juggie, move on and find someone else to love, enjoy NYU, create a beautiful family and become the great writer we both know you will become.  _

_ Don’t forget about me, I never will and I will always be watching over you, just remember that.  _

_ I love you, goodbye Juggie. _

_ Betty x’_

————-

A week after Betty’s funeral, FP stepped into the trailer and was confused when he didn’t see Jughead passed out on the couch or staring blankly at the tv. 

Jughead hadn’t left the trailer since her funeral and FP had gone to sleep to the sound of his son crying in his bedroom every night. Betty has broken Jughead, he hadn’t even touched his laptop or typewriter since he found her lifeless body that fateful day.

Scanning the trailer, FP spotted Jughead’s laptop open on the kitchen table. Walking towards it he noticed it was opened on Jughead’s novel, and a note at the bottom of the last page:

‘Dad,

I tried, I really tried to keep going without her, believe me. I wanted to honour her wishes and move on, but I can’t. I’ve loved her since I was 6 Dad, how can I keep going pretending everything is ok when the one thing I love more than food is gone? 

I hope you understand that I have to do this Dad, tell JB I love her please. I never understood Romeo and Juliet until now, what’s the point in living if the only thing you were living for is gone.’

FP was out of the door and onto his motorbike in a second, heading straight for Riverdale Cemetery.

And this is where he found Jughead, lying in the grass next to Betty’s grave. He looked asleep, peaceful.

FP smiles through his tears knowing that the two were at peace now, together.

_ So, Before you go was there something I could have said to make it all stop hurting. It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless so,  _

_ Before you go. _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I’m not entirely happy with the ending but I’ve been writing this for months so I just wanted to get it out here. All your comments and kudos are greatly appreciated and they encourage me to keep writing. Any constructive criticism is always welcome, I’d love to know ways to improve my writing.  
> If you want to catch up with my shenanigans on Instagram, give me a follow @bugheadslols.   
> Emily is signing out *salute*


End file.
